Nobel Laureates of Italian Descent
Here I list 24 Nobel Laureates of either Italian descent or who were born in Italy. Of these, 5 are of Jewish descent (those with a * next to the award year). Of the nine American winners, five were immigrants. We see here that many of America's great scientific advances can be traced to immigrant and Jewish roots.
| Jew | Year | Laureate | Field | Birthplace | Award Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1906 | Giosuè Carducci | Literature | Valdicastello, Italy | Italy | |
| 1906 | Camillo Golgi | Physiology or Medicine | Corteno, Italy | Italy | |
| 1909 | Guglielmo Marconi | Physics | Bologna, Italy | Italy | |
| 1926 | Grazia Deledda | Literature | Nuoro, Sardinia | Italy | |
| 1934 | Luigi Pirandello | Literature | Agrigento, Sicily | Italy | |
| 1938 | Enrico Fermi | Physics | Rome, Italy | Italy | |
| 1957 | Daniel Bovet | Physiology or Medicine | Fleurier, Switzerland | Italy | |
| 1959 | Salvatore Quasimodo | Literature | Modica, Sicily | Italy | |
| * | 1959 | Emilio G. Segrè | Physics | Tivoli, Italy | Italy |
| 1963 | Giulio Natta | Chemistry | Imperia, Italy | Italy | |
| * | 1969 | Salvador Luria | Physiology or Medicine | Turin, Italy | USA |
| 1975 | Eugenio Montale | Literature | Genoa, Italy | Italy | |
| 1975 | Renato Dulbecco | Physiology or Medicine | Catanzaro, Italy | USA | |
| 1984 | Carlo Rubbia | Physics | Gorizia, Italy | Italy | |
| * | 1985 | Franco Modigliani | Economics | Rome, Italy | USA |
| * | 1986 | Rita Levi-Montalcini | Physiology or Medicine | Turin, Italy | Italy |
| 1990 | Joseph Murray | Physiology or Medicine | Milford, Ma | USA | |
| 1997 | Dario Fo | Literature | Leggiuno Sangiano, Italy | Italy | |
| 1997 | William Daniel Phillips | Physics | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | USA | |
| 1998 | Louis Ignarro | Physiology or Medicine | Brooklyn, NY | USA | |
| 2002 | Riccardo Giacconi | Physics | Genoa, Italy | USA | |
| 2007 | Mario Capecchi | Physiology or Medicine | Verona, Italy | USA | |
| 2013 | Eugene Fama | Economics | Boston, Ma | USA | |
| * | 2014 | Patrick Modiano | Literature | Boulogne-Billancourt, France | France |
Italy has a very old Jewish community of less than 50,000 souls. Despite that small number, four of the 15 Nobel winners born in Italy proper were Jews. That translates to 800 Laureates per 10 million population - the highest in the world. For comparison, consider this table of the top Nobel-winning countries and their respective rate of Nobels per (10 million) capita:
| Country/Group | Nobel Laureates | Population 2015 | Laureates/10 mil |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jews of Italy | 4 | 50,000 | 800.00 |
| Jews Worldwide | 186 | 16,000,000 | 116.25 |
| United States | 353 | 321,773,631 | 10.97 |
| United Kingdom | 125 | 64,715,810 | 19.32 |
| Germany | 105 | 80,688,545 | 13.01 |
| France | 61 | 64,395,345 | 9.47 |
| Sweden | 30 | 9,779,426 | 30.68 |
| Switzerland | 25 | 8,298,663 | 30.13 |
| Japan | 24 | 126,573,481 | 1.89 |
| Canada | 23 | 35,939,927 | 6.40 |
| Russia | 23 | 143,456,918 | 1.60 |
| Muslims Worldwide | 5 | 1,500,000,000 | 00.033 |
Last year a possible Muslim won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry making it number 5 for Muslim winners of a Nobel Prize in the sciences and literature. It must be so nice for Muslims to finally be able to say that they have beaten the Jews at something; that is, there are more Muslim Nobel Laureates in total than Jewish Laureates born in Italy. Good job, Muslims!
